OCLC introduces a redesigned CONTENTdm

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 8 March 2011—CONTENTdm 6, the latest version of OCLC's popular CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management software, offers a complete redesign for the end-user experience along with new website configuration tools that enable digital collection administrators to easily customize their collections websites without programming expertise. CONTENTdm now offers new customization options, new architecture and improvements for search engine optimization.

Created with a user-centered design approach, the new CONTENTdm is the result of extensive usability testing. OCLC incorporated the feedback from these usability studies—along with CONTENTdm user community input, security and performance considerations, and a secondary design goal of ease of customization—to create a more intuitive experience for end users and tools that enable digital collection administrators to quickly customize their collections websites.

The new CONTENTdm website has consistently passed usability tests with 97 percent of end users able to accomplish their tasks. Improved usability leads to greater use and participation in libraries’ digital collections. The new end-user interface offers simpler access to digital items, easier navigation paths, dynamic interaction with digital items, and multiple avenues for discovery. It also offers end users more functionality, including the ability to share digital items (via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and many more), an enhanced image viewer for zooming and panning, and viewing images in full screen, as well as features that support discoverability such as QuickView, Advanced Search, Suggested Topics, Facets, breadcrumbs and RSS feeds.

The new Website Configuration Tool enables CONTENTdm digital collection administrators to tailor the appearance and behavior of their collections. With the new tool, administrators have the ability to create a branded look and feel for their websites, without programming skills or Web developer resources. Administrators can customize colors and styles or upload logos, as well as preview their website before publishing any changes, using the toolset. Additionally, all customizations persist through future software updates.

"The latest version of CONTENTdm is a great step forward," said Edward Kirkland, Project Manager, My Leicestershire Digital Archive, University of Leicester. "Using the new Website Configuration Tool made it really simple and quick to customize our digital archive website. And avoiding coding is really handy for sites like us with no in-house technical support. The long-term sustainability of our CONTENTdm instance is much more assured knowing that minimal technical input is required from our end."

Optimized for customization, the new CONTENTdm also accommodates those institutions that have available technical staff to make more advanced and extensive customizations using custom pages, custom scripts, custom Cascading Style Sheets and more.

Other CONTENTdm enhancements include improved Search Engine Optimization, updated Controlled Vocabularies and many more. It also includes a new feature that makes metadata creation more efficient by automatically extracting embedded image metadata. Now, EXIF and IPTC metadata embedded in JPEG and TIFF images can be automatically extracted and then mapped to Dublin Core or Qualified Dublin Core fields.

"This new CONTENTdm version serves as the foundation on which we will build more advanced functionality in the future. OCLC plans to follow this release with more enhancements later this year that will include social features such as commenting, tagging and rating; additional configuration tools and even more customization options," said Claire Cocco, Director, OCLC Digital Collection Services.

More than 2,000 libraries, archives, museums and other cultural heritage institutions around the world use CONTENTdm to manage their digital collections and deliver them to the Web.

See how libraries and other institutions are using CONTENTdm on the web.

About OCLC

Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 170 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat.org on the Web. For more information, visit the OCLC Web site.

OCLC, CONTENTdm, WorldCat and WorldCat.org are trademarks/service marks of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Third-party product, service and business names are trademarks/service marks of their respective owners.